Oum El Ghait is the first name that Morocco's Saharian nomads were wont to give to girls born on a rainy day, thinking it's the luck of the new born that brings with it the water, the relief, or deliverance; where the meaning of the name, which literally means "Mother of relief " Oum, was born in Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco, and grew up in the city of Marrakech. She takes her name from her paternal grandmother: Lalla Oum el Ghait Bent Bella.Oum is an eclectic feminine vocalist who dare to play soul music mixed with her natural influences, as the Hassany poetry (culture of the Moroccan desert) and african rythmes that she consideres as the roots of soul, gospel and jazz music.Malouma Mint El Maidah, Ella Fitzgerald, Miriam Makeba, Billie Holliday, Dimi Mint Abba, Aretha Franklin and Eryka Badu are her vocalists of reference.

Her first album Lik'Oum was presented in Casablanca in May 2009. She's considered one of the vocalists with most future on the feminin Moroccan scene.

Since september 2010 she started working on her second album "Sweerty" . "Whowa" first single of this second opus was released with a video clip in January 2010. Last july she released "Harguin"a collaboration with Blitz the Ambassador on the topic of illegal immigration from sub-Saharian Africa. The album Sweerty was released in 2012.In March 2013 she released her new album entitled : " Soul of Morocco. With the variety of music styles incorporated in her new album, including Hassany langauge, African beats, Jazz, Soul, Amazigh and Sufi music, Oum sung all her songs in Moroccan dialect with delicateness and artistic talent.

giovedì 18 aprile 2013

Maii is an 22 years old Egyptian girl .Known mostly for her brief stint in the all-female heavy metal band Mascara, and her off- and on-screen contributions to Ahmad Abdalla’s documentary-styled film “Microphone,” Maii Waleed may just be one of the more exciting talents in the sounds of Egypt’s underground.

In short, Waleed’s sound reflects a whimsical journey into the many melancholies faced by Egypt’s modern-day youth. Her lyrical content seems to heavily draw from autobiographical romantic turbulence or various existential crises, making her music perfect for those many pontificating loners.

Waleed’s first foray into music was at the age of 15 in her native town of Alexandria. After dabbling with piano, choir and a musical poetry group in high school, Waleed eventually found herself veering away from an institutionalized musical education, and taking up instead a more do-it-yourself approach to making music.

“I took some piano lessons as a kid, but quickly realized that I preferred learning music on my own in a way that could fit with my interests,” explains Waleed. “I started by writing lyrics when I was 16, and then began teaching myself the guitar — I wanted to be on my own, rather than relying on other people to play the chords properly, or waiting around to see if they are in the mood or not.”

By the time Waleed was 17, she began joining and forming several bands with other friends within Alexandria’s emerging underground music scene in the early 2000s. This list of bands includes Nail Polish, Grin, Sameka, Telepoetic and the more widely known ensemble Mascara.

While in Mascara, Waleed played the drums and keyboard, and was also a lead vocalist, but eventually left the band in 2008 due to creative differences, thus beginning her solo career.

Singing predominately in Arabic, Waleed’s music has also been used in the soundtracks of short films such as Emad Maher’s “Neon Lamp” and Islam Kamal’s “Shali,” in addition to Abdalla’s “Microphone.”

“Working on ‘Microphone’ was an interesting experience because I worked both on camera and as an assistant director,” says Waleed. “Mascara was featured prominently in the film, and at the time, their bassist, Perry Moataz, was unavailable, so I acted in her place.”

Later in the film, Waleed also appears as herself in an interview with the smarmy state employee. In this scene, as part of her bid to obtain a permit to perform in a government-backed concert, she performs a version of her song “Trash and Nostalgia” on the ukulele.

But Abdalla was not the only one to catch wind of Waleed’s talents; along the way, she was introduced to the venerable Lebanese musician and producer Zeid Hamdan, who expressed interest in her music. In 2010, Waleed was invited to participate in the annual Red Bull Music Academy in Beirut, and it was then that she and Hamdan began laying down the foundation for her debut EP.

“I wanted to work with Hamdan because he has a very open and unique approach to music. He is highly professional, but at the same time, he makes the entire process fun,” explains Waleed. “I always had the fear of getting serious about something I did for fun and never thought I would take my music professionally, but Hamdan has such a great understanding of what underground music really is, and how to properly position your music and image so it was very easy to work with him.”

The album, produced by Zeid Hamdan , has been credited to MAII & ZEID .Will be titled "Moga" and will be presented at " Metro el Madina" in Beirut on the 4 th May 2013 at 9.30 pm.

venerdì 12 aprile 2013

Itar Shameh (Arabic: إطار شمع) is an Oriental Jazz/Rock band from Damascus, Syria. Itar Shameh (Along with Kulna Sawa, Anas & Friends and Lena Chamamyan) give a bright picture about the Syrian music. A musical band founded in 1998 by Ibrahim Sulaimani, who is a composer and a guitar player, and Rasha Rizk, who is a professor at the Higher Institute for Music at Opera Department. The founders accepted the responsibility of composing songs that address the new generation’s problems and aspirations using most suitable wording without committing with the arabic lyrical poetry rules and supporting this with new musical trends. Their music depends on Jazz, Rock, Funk, Latin music and most importantly Arabic music. But what they count on most is the contemporary reality. May 2007 witnessed launching the band’s first album quenching the thirst of their fans after a series of parties in many Syrian cities, Beirut, Amman and Dubai.

Rasha Rizk , born in Damascus in 1976 ,started expressing her talents since childhood. With her family encouragement she started her vocal education since she was nine years old with her first Professor Naeem Hanna, for five years. At the age of 12 , she won the first prize of the Pioneers children competition for best singer in Syria . She studied for two years Economics in the university of Damascus but she was actually more interested in arts. Thus, she left the university and started studying French Literature at the Sorbonne University by correspondences via the French Cultural Center. Meanwhile, she took part in many musical activities at different bands. She then established “Horizon” band in cooperation with Ibrahim Sulaimani before launching their own band known as Itar Shameh”.

2002 she got her musical diploma from the high institute of music of Damascus where she studied with “Galina Khaldieva” and “Natalia Kiritchinka”. She also took part in many workshops with many vocalists as “Shona Winsley”, “Gloria Scalchi”, “Valery Florac, “Rateba Al Hefny”, “Mya Bselink”, “Caroline Dumas”in the Ecole Normale in Paris. and with “Meredith Monk”,and with Roman Trekel in Berlin Statsoper.

At AL Zuhra Production company, the owner of the famous TV channel”for kids Spacetoon, Rasha works since 1995 as a vocalist, and a song writer . She also took part in many musical concerts performing Oriental music, Opera, and Jazz in many Syrian cities , in Beirut, Amman, Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Morocco, Paris, Frankfort, Athens, …etc. And in 2002 she played the role of the first witch at Dido and Enias opera of Henry Purcell. Then played Jumana the first character in Ebn Sina opera by Michiel Borstlap in Qatar 2003. She played “Michaella” in Carmen by Georges Bizet , Damascus in 2008.

In addition, she took part in the Opening concert of Doha Jazz Festival 2004 along with the prominent Jazz vocalist “Dianah Reeves” and the famous dutch pianist “Michiel Borstlap”. In the Dubai Jazz Festival in 2007 she sang with “Kamal Masallam”'s band. In addition to many other musical activities.

2008 she recorded three tracks in ERA new album "Reborn" in Abbey Road Studios in London.

Ibrahim Sulaimani was born in Damascus in 1971. He revealed his passion toword music since childhood and got introduced to many musical genres ,between the classic Arabic music and the modern western music.

He studied two years at the Faculty of Letters, English Department. But being so indulged in music, he decided to quit and allocate his full time to it. He succeeded and set one of the young Rock bands named “Nameless” and presented many successful concerts.

He was so interested in Rock music and proved to be one of the best Electric Guitar players in Syria. He worked as composer for television programs .

He also has been working at AL Zuhra Production company in the dubbing department and as a composer for more than ten years.

He performed in many concerts in some Syrian cities, Lebanon, Jordan, UAE in collaboration with many musicians such as the famous Spanish guitar player “Francisco Molena” and the world-wide famous flute player “Jorje Padro”. He also played with the Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker and her band and took part in many workshops about Jazz the last of which was with the American guitar player “Paul Pieper”. Of course he also took part in the Syrian Jazz bigband during the Syrian Jazz Festival in 2005.

giovedì 11 aprile 2013

From Amman , Jordan.Kawar started experimenting with sound “in the early 1990s using old school analogue cassette tape overdubs and 4 track recorders”. He has some 20 years of musical experience, having studied music theory at the National Conservatory of Music and attended private classes in Jordan and the US.An authentic musician, Yousef Kawar's music speaks through different moods and variations. He illustrates music by mashing up electronic beats with ambient sounds, and mixing them with a touch of rock, jazz music. Yousef's high education degrees in music, coupled with his intrinsic talent, gave him a special edge in composing such truly unique music over the years. Yousef Kawar's music speaks through different moods and variations. he has 3 music albums, composed, produced and mixed by himself. Currently he's working on his 4th album. He got 3 awards (1 documentary and 2 short films) and recently Johnny Colt featured him in an interview on CNN.When listening to Yousef's music, and watching his frenzied fingers blur through the strings, you could clearly feel the strength of his guitar as it weeps and laughs, and moves the inside out. Yousef is also largely interested and involved in the background visuals played during his live performances. His pieces don’t express tangible situations, they rather attempt to connect with the unreachable, subtle side of being, beyond verbal vocabulary; when the connection happens, he expresses it through music notes. In general, Yousef's expressions may be described as a careful preservation of a spiritual state. Like his style, his instrumentals’ titles are typically unique, throwing the listener away from the concrete perception of the piece. One thing is for sure…his listeners ought to be relaxed and not seek an immediate answer! He is also a professional video maker and sound producer and has received several awards. He won the first place at the Japan Animation Film Festival for a piece titled “Mahmoud Kahil”, named after one of the late caricaturist’s work, the second place at the Human Rights Film Festival 2010 for the piece “The Right to Live”, and the third place for best short documentary film “Arabizi”, which explores spoken Arabic/English amongst youth in Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt.

mercoledì 3 aprile 2013

“A 6 piece Egyptian pop band, Singing Sarcastic lyrics with a groovy twist”, That’s how we describe ourselves.The band started in 2004 when Mohamed Ali, Osama Saad and Amr Gioushy decided to combine their musical talents together to make music that’s different, catchy and at the same time new and meaningful.Presented by Arabic lyrics that speak out the issues concerning today’s youth life, Salalem continues to do their best in improving and turning their musical ideas into songs that are excitedly welcome by their audience.

THE MUSIC:Salalem’s songs are the type that have no specific genre. Due to the band members’ diverse influences, the outcome becomes a little bit of everything. In the end, funky grooves are produced to the audience fused with sarcastically humorous Egyptian lyrics, which is what makes Salalem special; the sarcastic perspective of life.Band Members:Mohamed Ali "Walkman" - Guitar, VocalsOsama Saad "Oss" - Guitar, Backing VocalsAmr Sayed "Solo" - GuitarMohammed Jamal "Jimi" - Lead VocalsEzz Shahwan "El General" - BassSherif Nabil - Drums

The band was formed in 2005 and are living and working in Cairo. Their music consists of a mixture of acoustic/electronic instruments. The mixture of different musical backgrounds of the three members has created a concrete vision of electronic music of their age. Undoubtedly, Bikya is all about a new sound, a creative fusion of styles, ranging so far and wide –drum’n’bass, classic techno, funk, trip hop, electronica, ambient electro, folktronica– that labels collapse. The trio of musicians that make up the group embodies that diversity: Mahmoud Waly, Mahmoud Refat ,and Maurice Luca,They came together to create a music where acoustic and electronic experimentation blend, where the complexities and contradictions of the “live” experience translate into dynamic artistic innovation.

Produced by Cairo-based, independent label 100 copies of each release, Bikya’s sound does not risk to be coopted any time soon.(Source : www.facebook.com)